Hi everybody! It's February 7, and this will be my last post for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I leave for JRTC (that's Joint Readiness Training Center, for those of you who don't speak Army. Honestly, most of us have to look up the meanings of these acronyms, too, but we don't admit that to other soldiers) in Fort Polk, LA.

The goal of Fort Polk is to expose us to a wide variety of scenarios such as we might see in Iraq. There is an entire training brigade of soldiers whose job is to make sure we are ready to handle any challenge. We will be "in the box" for 11 days, meaning no cell phones, little personal internet, little sleep, and a whole lot of stress. The idea is that your best day "in the box" should be less stressful than your worst day in Iraq. Of course, we're only playing with MILES gear (that's like Army laser tag), not real weapons, so it's not life or death like in the real thing, but it should help prepare us for the real thing.

Up until now, we've spent a lot of time training in two main areas. First is basic soldier skills -- shoot, move, communicate, and help your buddy. Second has been a slew of classes on things like suicide prevention, marriage care, and ethics in war. We put soldiers through DAYS of classes on how to behave morally in war, and over and over we emphasize how they are to use the minimum force possible. 

Think about how difficult that is. You as a soldier are in a place where people are dying every day, where your first instinct is to survive and get home, when you have highly lethal weapons and the means to use them, and when you could keep yourself safer by shooting first and asking questions later. 

Most other armies in the history of the world have looted, raped, and pillaged their way through their wars. Not us. We're not perfect, but we go to great lengths to restrain the amount of violence we inflict. But of course the media rarely shows how much we teach these soldiers restraint, and how lethal force is the LAST resort. These men accept the extra danger of taking their fingers off the trigger for the sake of a bigger cause. It's an honor to work with them.

I hear it's cold back in MN. It's been pretty chilly down here, too, especially if you have to spend all day outside. We all know the desert heat is coming soon enough.

God be good to you!
CH Steve Timm